A photomechanical process is composed of (1) a color separation condition designation process, (2) a color separation film producing process (the processes (1) and (2) are provided for reproducing color images), (3) a proving process, (4) a retouching and inspecting process, (5) a patching up process and (6) a plate producing process, and each of these processes is conventionally performed independently without having close correlations to the others.
However, in company with the development and accompanying expensiveness of recent photomechanical systems as can be seen from the introduction of a layout scanner or a preset device for a color scanner to the systems, a plurality of originals are required to be reproduced at a time onto a plurality of photosensitive materials when the system must be profitable. In other words, when any of the processes, such as the layout process or the proving process delays, the system becomes unprofitable resulting in damaging the enterprise being concerned therewith. To avoid the demerit, each processes must be controlled organically.